Former NFL player charged with embezzling from commercial real estate projects

Date: Oct. 17, 2024

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Richmond, VA - A federal grand jury returned an indictment on Oct. 15, 2024, charging a Washington man with embezzling loan proceeds intended for the development and construction of two commercial real estate projects.

According to the indictment, Christopher A. Harrison, a former National Football League player and real estate developer, allegedly induced and misappropriated loan proceeds intended for the development and construction of two real estate projects: (1) the Model Tobacco Project in Richmond, Virginia; and (2) the Whitaker Park Project in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Harrison allegedly secured loans from Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust (CRBT) for $14,492,057 for the Model Tobacco Project and $7,706,675 for the Whitaker Park Project. Under the terms of the loan agreements, Harrison was prohibited from using loan proceeds to pay himself or affiliated entities any construction, management, development, or contractor fees or from using the loan proceeds for personal expenditures.

As alleged in the indictment, however, Harrison skimmed loan proceeds intended for the Model Tobacco and Whitaker Park Projects by first creating a straw demolition company, Virginia Demolition LLC, that had no employees, demolition equipment, or office space. Harrison then allegedly created forged and falsified documentation purporting to show that Virginia Demolition LLC did actual work on the projects, including work that predated Harrison's creation of the Virginia Demolition LLC entity. Harrison allegedly forged the signature of a separate individual, who Harrison falsely represented was the "President" of Virginia Demolition LLC, multiple times across Harrison's various submittals to CRBT. Harrison also is alleged to have doctored and inflated invoices in the name of a separate construction vendor for Model Tobacco, inducing CRBT to disburse inflated loan amounts. In total, Harrison allegedly submitted over a dozen falsified invoices and lien waivers in draw requests to induce CRBT to disburse over $3.6 million in loan proceeds to Harrison to satisfy purported expenditures.

Harrison allegedly used some of these loan proceeds for his own benefit, rather than applying them to the Model Tobacco and Whitaker Park Projects as required. As alleged in the indictment, Harrison used some of the money he stole for the following personal purchases and expenses, among others:

• Numerous purchases at luxury goods and fashion stores, including over $60,000 in payments to Lenkersdorfer Fine Jewelers to buy Rolex watches.
• Personal expenses, including his home mortgage, landscaping services for his residence, and tuition and tutoring expenses for his minor child.
• Expenses related to a separate construction project - the Petersburg Ramada Inn. For instance, Harrison allegedly used fraud proceeds to pay legal fees to a law firm for Harrison's litigation against the City of Petersburg pertaining to the project. The Petersburg Ramada Inn was a shuttered building in Petersburg, Virginia. Harrison purchased the property in 2018 and sold it back to the City of Petersburg in June 2022.

Harrison is charged with: wire fraud and mail fraud, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived property, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and aggravated identity theft, which carries a two-year mandatory minimum prison term Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Kareem A. Carter, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge of the Washington D.C. Field Office; and Stanley M. Meador, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Richmond Field Office, made the announcement.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kashan K. Pathan and Avi Panth are prosecuting the case.

IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.

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